Recaps

Vitus reviewed government paperwork, restored funding for Constantinople’s municipal services, and escaped the palace for a brief retreat in the hills. He ended the chapter by summoning thirty officials to form a new department that would help him handle military, financial, judicial, and diplomatic matters.

• Vitus reviewed an iron-mining application, ordered a survey before auctioning the rights, and asked Adrian University for findings on mine drainage and ventilation.
• Vitus dismissed Balram’s complaint as a trivial matter and restored Constantinople’s municipal funding, while directing Bessarion to prioritize everyday facilities over the unfinished Golden Horn clock tower.
• After half a month of exhausting meetings and paperwork, Vitus left Constantinople with Pelato and Carlo to rest at his mountain residence.
• Vitus observed that Venice was losing Black Sea trade as merchant ships bearing Florence’s flag passed through the Bosphorus.
• After dinner, Vitus summoned thirty officials and ordered Carlo to establish a new department to help him handle military affairs, finance, judicial affairs, and diplomacy.

Vitus returned to Constantinople and resumed governing, then inspected the city’s population, the Golden Horn clock tower construction, and the recovering harbor trade. The chapter left him weighing the tower’s rising cost against military spending as trade and tax prospects improved.

• Vitus completed a demanding stretch of official work after the cabinet decree drew notice from central administration officials.
• Vitus rode through Constantinople, heard his attendants explain the city’s historical free-bread policy, and decided not to restore it.
• Vitus inspected the Golden Horn clock tower, learned its revised plan would cost about thirty thousand florins, and worried that the final expenses would be much higher.
• Vitus visited the harbor office and learned that merchants were returning and trade had begun to recover.

Vitus learned that the people viewed him as a ruthless conqueror, then received his cousin Uroš Dragases and assessed him before discussing Serbia’s shifting alliances. The chapter left Vitus treating the neighboring country cautiously because he distrusted its flexible diplomacy.

• Vitus urged the patriarch to organize church appointments and rebuilding in the reclaimed provinces, then asked how the city’s residents viewed him.
• The patriarch silenced clergy who criticized Vitus, while the narration described the people’s mixed views of the emperor and their fear of his severity.
• Vitus joined the imperial family’s banquet and spoke with Uroš Dragases, concluding that his cousin lacked experience in commanding armies.
• Vitus held an Imperial Council, then summoned Uroš to discuss diplomatic relations between their countries.
• Vitus reviewed Serbia’s past ties to the Ottomans, Hungary, the Eastern Roman Empire, and Venice, and decided he could not trust its sincerity.

Vitus explained why the Eastern Roman Empire could not campaign for Jerusalem while Venice controlled the eastern Mediterranean sea lanes, and he promised continued support to the Knights Hospitaller. He ordered coastal defenses strengthened and concluded that delaying war with Venice would benefit the empire as its finances and shipbuilding capacity improved.

• Vitus met the Knights Hospitaller envoy, read the Grand Master's letter, and blamed Venice's control of the seas for making a southern campaign too dangerous.
• Vitus replied that the Eastern Roman Empire would continue subsidizing the order and funding raids along the Mamluk coast, while postponing the question of Jerusalem.
• Vitus ordered fortifications and artillery built along the coast, prioritized the Dardanelles and major cities, and told villages to construct beacon towers and shelter refugees.
• Vitus transferred the Sakarya Legion, his cavalry, and the Hermes Brigade to Greece so nearby field forces could reinforce threatened districts within five days.
• Vitus assessed Venice's political structure and the limits of both sides' finances, then estimated the empire's shipbuilding capacity and sailor pool before deciding that war should be delayed.

Hunyadi promoted his matchlocks in Gdansk while Poland negotiated the Teutonic Knights' surrender and planned to consolidate its gains. Władysław welcomed Poland's recovery of West Prussia, while Casimir IV worried about instability and rival powers in the north.

• Hunyadi met Hanseatic merchants in Gdansk, secured a supply agreement, and recalled his campaign on the Aegean Sea.
• Poland demanded that the Teutonic Knights cede West Prussia, accept Polish authority over Warmia, and stop hiring foreign mercenaries.
• Władysław and Casimir IV watched the Knights' envoys depart with the draft treaty and discussed creating firearms forces.
• Casimir IV described Lithuania's Cossack problem and the instability facing the Kalmar Union, Novgorod, and the Moscow Grand Duchy.
• Władysław celebrated Gdansk's wealth and promised to support Casimir if conflict arose with Vitus or Vasili II.

In Kuban Town, Ilya expanded the Borderland Region’s administration by taking over a Circassian nobleman’s territory in exchange for guaranteeing his debts. News of unrest in Galatia made Ilya fear he would be sent to replace Tucha, while he continued inspecting the region’s brick defenses.

• Ilya signed an agreement with a bankrupt Circassian nobleman, bringing one small town and thirty villages under the Borderland Region’s jurisdiction in exchange for debt guarantees.
• At lunch, Ilya heard that Black Vulture’s bandits had killed a merchant’s household in Ankara and that unrest was spreading across Anatolia.
• Ilya feared that the emperor might dismiss Tucha and send him to manage the troubled inland region.
• Unable to focus on his duties, Ilya walked around Kuban Town and observed its red-brick buildings and growing fortifications.
• Ilya inspected Kuban Town’s brick defenses and judged them strong enough to resist likely attacks without burdening the central treasury with costly advanced fortifications.

Ilya organized the Borderland Region’s preliminary civil service examination after Sancho and the Examination Bureau officials arrived late with Constantinople’s instructions. Seventy candidates passed, and Sancho completed background investigations before leaving with the applicants, while Ilya reflected on a distant noble’s estate being mismanaged by its steward.

• Sancho delivered the central government’s examination documents, and Ilya dispatched thirty teams to notify settlements and bring applicants to Kuban Town.
• More than three hundred candidates took the Greek and basic mathematics examination, and Sancho announced that seventy had passed.
• Ilya recalled that a noble’s heir had refused to return to his estate and feared the appointed steward would embezzle its funds.
• Sancho and local postmen investigated the candidates’ family backgrounds across the region for two weeks.
• Ilya saw Sancho off with wool carpets for his neighbors in the Emilian District, and Sancho said another official would lead next year’s team.

Romanus visited a horse ranch in Cappadocia, inspected and purchased mounts for the army, then continued to Kayseri. There, he learned that local militiamen were rotating to the border as the frontier army remained under strain.

• Romanus and his party toured the ranch, where a manager ordered a difficult black horse sold after it threw its trainer.
• The next morning, Romanus's officials inspected the ranch's horses and purchased two hundred suitable mounts.
• Romanus's party bought another four hundred horses on the way east and reached Kayseri on October 1.
• The officials completed the mounts' handover to the frontier district, where the horses would undergo further training.
• Romanus saw militiamen drilling near Kayseri and learned from the garrison general that they were preparing to replace troops whose tours had ended.

Romanus inspected Cappadocia’s border defenses and reviewed the fortresses and troops being prepared against Ottoman attacks. When Marcus reported that Georgia had invited the empire to join an eastern campaign, Romanus declined and returned to Konya, leaving the decision to Constantinople.

• Romanus set out for the border with more than a thousand cavalrymen and militiamen after provincial officials assembled an escort.
• Romanus inspected the border fortresses, their garrisons, and the system of border troops and rotating militia.
• Marcus told Romanus that Georgia’s King Vakhtang had invited the empire to fight alongside Georgia and recover lost territory.
• Romanus refused to join the campaign and instructed Marcus to send the envoy to Constantinople for the central government to decide.
• Romanus concluded that the eastern front should remain defensive until the empire had dealt with Venice in the west, then ended his inspection and headed back to Konya.

Vitus finalized the civil service examination system and inspected Constantinople, reflecting on how guild monopolies had stifled commerce and innovation. The Eastern Roman Empire’s guilds remained loosely organized, leaving native trade freer to develop.

• Vitus set the examination subjects, interviewed the top ten candidates, and assigned successful candidates to government posts or further study.
• Vitus planned to fill two-thirds of annual civil service vacancies through examinations and reserve the rest for other groups.
• Vitus rode through Constantinople and saw shops displaying guild emblems.
• Vitus recalled how Western guild monopolies had blocked his earlier business ambitions and suppressed inventions such as spinning machines.
• Vitus reflected that the Spinning Jenny had helped make Chersonesus a major textile center, while the empire’s own guilds operated as loose merchant associations.

Thomas read Plethon’s criticism of Venice and dismissed his advice on wartime policy, while Vitus explained why he had rejected Plethon as Romanus’s tutor. At dinner, Vitus said Romanus would return in winter and marry Anna, a match he preferred over foreign alliances.

• Thomas went hunting and later learned that the Venetian envoy had left without an agreement.
• Thomas read Plethon’s account of Venice’s nobility and criticized his recommendation to spare some merchants’ property.
• Vitus recalled rejecting Plethon as Romanus’s tutor because he prioritized finance and military studies over philosophy and other subjects.
• Thomas asked when Romanus would return and marry, and Vitus said Romanus would visit in winter and marry Anna.
• Vitus’s account explained that John and Vitus had considered foreign princesses but chose Anna because they saw no need for a foreign alliance.

Vitus visited a naval harbor to inspect the Smyrna, a heavily armored, slow warship built as a stopgap while the shipyard struggled to develop a three-deck design. He explained its role in defending the Dardanelles and reflected on the challenges the Eastern Roman Empire would face in defeating Venice.

• Vitus told Agnes to arrange his eldest son's wedding and left early to inspect a newly launched warship.
• Thomas caught up with Vitus and agreed to keep the warship's specifications secret.
• At the harbor, Vitus and Thomas examined the Smyrna, whose thick oak hull and twenty-four gun positions favored protection and firepower over speed.
• Vitus explained that the three-deck warship project had stalled and that the navy intended to use the Smyrna to defend the Dardanelles or blockade enemy warships.
• Vitus considered how the Eastern Roman Empire could defeat Venice by overcoming its fleet, capturing its outer fortresses, and seizing its main island.

Vitus inspected Adrian University’s mining technologies and found that improved drainage and ventilation had significantly increased a copper mine’s profits. He ordered Goneiqiya to share the techniques with mine owners across the provinces.

• Vitus traveled to Adrian to investigate the university’s advances in mine drainage and ventilation, and told Goneiqiya that future research funding would undergo official review.
• Vitus examined the university’s research papers and found a mix of practical studies and wasteful proposals.
• Vitus inspected a copper mine’s water-powered piston pump and animal-powered chain pumps, then ordered an audit of the mine’s accounts.
• Vitus observed the mine’s ventilation system, which used a chimney-like outlet and a horse-driven blower to circulate air.
• An attendant reported that the new technologies had raised the mine’s net profits by a quarter.
• Vitus asked Goneiqiya to compile a booklet and publish an article in the Golden Horn News about the mining technologies.

Vitus learned that France had arrested Jacques Coeur and seized his property, while Jacques’s son Jean fled to Constantinople seeking refuge and an audience with the emperor. Vitus declined to openly shelter Jean, wary of damaging relations with France, and left Thomas to answer for the favors he had accepted.

• Vitus read a report that Charles VII had arrested Jacques Coeur and confiscated his assets.
• Jean Coeur arrived in Constantinople with his mistress, attendants, and wealth after fleeing Genoa.
• Jean explored the city, met an old friend in the Italian quarter, and asked for help securing an audience with Vitus.
• Jean’s friend introduced him to Thomas Palaiologos’s steward, who arranged a meeting through Thomas.
• Thomas asked Vitus whether he would meet Jean, but Vitus refused to openly shelter him because it could push France toward Venice.
• Vitus told Thomas that Thomas had taken Jean’s money, then returned to his official work.

After Stephen Synolian’s funeral, civil officials worried that the emperor’s Cabinet was taking power from the established bureaucracy. Carlo Santis waited all morning to see Finance Minister Ektor, then told Cabinet clerk Edric to use previously processed provincial documents to answer pressure from the Inner Palace Directorate.

• At Stephen Synolian’s funeral, civil officials criticized the Cabinet’s growing control over government business and the role of Carlo Santis and the Inner Palace Directorate.
• Carlo carried documents to the finance department and waited twenty minutes in the reception room for Finance Minister Ektor to see him.
• Carlo fell asleep while waiting and emerged around lunchtime as officials left for the dining area.
• Edric told Carlo that documents had piled up at the Cabinet and that the Inner Palace Directorate was demanding they be processed quickly.
• Carlo told Edric where to find the briefs and documents he had prepared for four inland provinces and suggested submitting them to the Directorate.

Carlo had his staff correct errors in departmental reports while Vitus stayed away from the Imperial Council to plan a four-school officer training system. Vitus arranged site surveys for the military schools and invited officers to apply for teaching posts, with examinations planned for next spring.

• Carlo returned the reports containing errors and omissions to his staff and ordered them to correct the documents, sending Edric and others to retrieve records from the Imperial Archives.
• As more faulty documents arrived, the central administration grew tense and inefficient while Vitus spent over ten days preparing plans for Army and Navy Schools.
• Vitus estimated the schools’ costs and decided to advance the money himself, drawing on income from bone china, Spinning Jenny licensing fees, and imperial estates.
• Vitus asked Agnes how much cash she could raise, and she warned him not to use the money reserved for Romanus's wedding.
• Vitus ordered army and navy officers to survey school sites, outlined his plan for naval training, and invited interested officers to apply to teach.

Vitus stayed out of Imperial Council meetings while the Cabinet struggled with delayed reports and budgets, then Romanus returned to the palace and described the troubled eastern provinces. Vitus left the chapter planning sweeping changes in the central administration while accepting that inland Anatolia would continue to need central funding.

• Vitus dismissed Pelato’s concerns over delayed Cabinet reports and authorized temporary funding from the privy treasury.
• Romanus returned to Blachernae Palace and advised Leo about choosing a branch of the army, recommending artillery.
• Romanus listened as civil officials reported to Vitus, then learned that Vitus planned sweeping changes in the central administration.
• Romanus told Vitus that banditry and overspending had left Konya and Cappadocia unable to support themselves, while coastal Anatolia’s surpluses could sustain inland provinces and the eastern army.

Vitus delayed the annual government meeting while the Cabinet struggled to complete its reports, then convened the Imperial Council and presented a plan to reorganize the empire’s institutions. The meeting began reviewing the plan after Vitus explained its goals of improving administration and preventing powerful ministers from seizing the throne.

• On January 5, Vitus ignored the Cabinet’s brief, went to Hagia Sophia, and discussed church affairs with the Patriarch.
• Vitus stayed away from the Imperial Council for fifty days as government business accumulated and officials fell ill.
• On January 20, Vitus ordered the annual meeting to take place the next day, despite omissions in the Cabinet’s report.
• Vitus convened the meeting in Alexius Hall, reviewed the events of 1444, and distributed copies of the Administrative Plan.
• Vitus presented a plan that gave the Cabinet responsibility for deliberation and decision-making while departments carried out administrative duties, drawing on Roman, Ming, and eighteenth-century European institutions.

Vitus reorganized the Eastern Roman Empire’s central administration after more than ten days of discussions, appointing a new Cabinet and reshaping the ministries. Ilya began work as Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in a cramped new office, then headed home feeling unexpectedly nostalgic for Kuban Town.

• Vitus concluded consultations with civil officials and announced the dissolution of the Imperial Council, placing Chrysaphi, Balram, and Savard in charge of the Cabinet.
• Vitus appointed Carlo Santis as Finance Minister, reorganized the ministries into nine main departments, and transferred Ektor to govern Outer Tauris.
• Ilya left his post in the Circassian Borderland Region to become Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in the central administration.
• A young eunuch led Ilya to a cramped, unfinished compound, where Ilya arranged the office and assigned workspaces to his arriving subordinates.
• After finishing work, Ilya rode his hired carriage toward his home in the Emilian District and found himself missing life in Kuban Town.

After formalizing imperial succession and issuing naval and coastal defense orders, Vitus learned that Charles VII had refused to join the war against Venice and resolved to fight regardless. Thomas then asked him to protect Jean Coeur, but Vitus told him Coeur could return to France or live elsewhere and refused to discuss the matter further.

• Agnes arranged the lavish wedding of Romanus and Anna, and Vitus then promulgated an imperial succession law and ordered expanded shipyards and coastal defense reports.
• Vitus received the envoy's report that Charles VII had rejected the Palaiologos family's invitation because he was suppressing a rebellion in France.
• Vitus and the Privy Council officers concluded that Charles VII would stay out of the war, and Vitus decided the Eastern Roman Empire would fight Venice regardless.
• Thomas asked Vitus to protect Jean Coeur in exchange for military funding, but Vitus said Coeur could return to France or live elsewhere as long as he obeyed Roman law.

Thomas told Coeur that his family was safe and invited him to invest in a textile manufactory, but Coeur weighed the risks against other business opportunities. After learning that the cotton plantations up for auction were in dangerous Cappadocia, Coeur postponed bidding and decided to investigate the eastern situation first.

• Thomas told Coeur that his family’s troubles had been settled and invited him to join a textile manufactory venture.
• Coeur examined the city’s textile industry and banks, concluding that he lacked the funds to compete with major manufacturers and distrusted Thomas’s proposed partnership.
• Coeur went to city hall to investigate an auction of former Ottoman properties, including cotton plantations, and considered buying a plantation to supply cotton cloth for Constantinople.
• Coeur heard diners say that mounted bandits had killed a cotton plantation owner in Cappadocia and that the region was dangerous.
• Coeur decided to delay bidding and learn more about conditions in the east before making plans.

Coeur secured a property in Constantinople for his planned Dividend Certificate Exchange, while Uzun Hasan brutally enforced production reforms at an iron mine and inspected his growing firearms workshop. The chapter left Uzun Hasan dissatisfied with the slow growth of his matchlock stockpile despite rewarding some smiths.

• Coeur noticed merchants struggling to find partners for eastern estates and conceived a venue for selling dividend rights in small shares.
• Coeur chose a moderately priced property near Bank Street and applied to purchase it for his planned Dividend Certificate Exchange.
• Uzun Hasan found that an iron mine had ignored his orders to adopt new technology, killed its overseer, and appointed an experienced miner as the new owner.
• Uzun Hasan visited the smithy in Kars, where production had reached sixty guns a month but could add only forty to his stockpile after losses.
• Uzun Hasan rewarded the smiths who performed well and had those with poor performance flogged.

Uzun Hasan weighed whether to support the Ottomans or the Black Sheep as the two powers prepared for war around Lake Van. Jahan Shah gathered an army at Tabriz and planned to march west after ten days to destroy the Ottoman force quickly.

• Uzun Hasan learned that the Ottomans and the Black Sheep Dynasty had gone to war, then received requests for troops from both Bayezid II and Jahan Shah.
• Uzun Hasan considered each side's forces and ordered the White Sheep tribes to send their chiefs and soldiers to Kars, while postponing his decision about which side to support.
• White Sheep tribal chiefs protested the call-up because spring was a critical season for their herds, but the sultan's messenger threatened them with destruction if they failed to comply.
• The Ottoman tribes responded weakly to Bayezid II's mobilization order, while Jahan Shah's tribes obeyed and assembled at Tabriz.
• By March 20, Jahan Shah had gathered more than thirty thousand men outside Tabriz and ordered grass and grain fed to the horses before marching west in ten days.

Uzun Hasan inspected his army and discovered that most of its cannons were dangerously defective, while Bayezid II advanced along Lake Van to prepare for Jahan Shah’s arrival. After receiving a threatening demand from the Black Sheep envoy, Uzun Hasan decided to march to the battlefield but wait to see how the Ottomans fared before choosing a side.

• Uzun Hasan demonstrated his infantry and artillery to the tribal chiefs, but six of twenty cannons burst and nine more cracked during testing.
• Uzun Hasan spared the cannon craftsmen from execution after his ministers pleaded with him, ordering them flogged instead.
• Bayezid II’s army advanced to Lake Van, seized towns and gathered provisions, while the sultan sought support from Uzun Hasan and prepared his musketeers to defend themselves.
• A Black Sheep envoy threatened Uzun Hasan and demanded that he join Jahan Shah’s army or face the sultan’s wrath.
• Uzun Hasan gave the envoy gold, then decided to march toward Lake Van and join the Ottomans if they held their ground against the Black Sheep.

Uzun Hasan marched to join the Ottomans, but learned Bayezid II had been killed and seized the chance to claim the regency before defeating the Black Sheep. Later, Vitus received news that the Ottomans had collapsed and ordered frontier forces and Georgia to prepare for the White Sheep’s growing power.

• Uzun Hasan took Jahan Shah’s conciliatory letter as a sign that the Black Sheep were struggling, forced three doubtful chieftains to swear loyalty, and formally declared war on them.
• Uzun Hasan’s scouts reported that the Ottomans had been routed, and he learned that Bayezid II had died during the Black Sheep cavalry’s counterattack.
• Uzun Hasan fabricated a testament naming Bayezid II’s infant son as successor and himself as regent, then ordered the Ottoman remnants to assemble at Erzurum.
• Uzun Hasan’s forces drove back the Black Sheep, while the Ottoman territories were divided among the White Sheep, the Black Sheep, and the Mamluks.
• Vitus mourned the destruction of his longtime enemy and ordered the frontier troops and Georgia to strengthen their defenses against the White Sheep.